In a recent interview with talkSPORT , Kofi Kingston opened up about losing the WWE Championship to Brock Lesnar in only seven seconds.
According to Kingston — who lost the championship on Friday Night SmackDown ‘s debut episode on FOX — he was “disappointed” to drop the title in such a controversial fashion, on one of WWE’s most important shows of the year.
“For me especially and anyone in this position as a WWE performer, I think we want to be the best and put on the best product we can and, yeah, it was a bit of a disappointment to go out there and have it go so quickly on the biggest night of SmackDown . You know, we’ve been talking about this deal with FOX and I’ve been lucky to have been at the forefront of it all since the beginning. So, to have it end like that was a little bit disheartening.”
However, the New Day member stated that he feels “fortunate” to have held the title for six months and that he’s proud of the matches he was a part of during his reign as champion. Kingston was a fighting champion, and he had memorable matches with a host of top WWE stars.
Kingston also addressed the critics of his title run, saying that he’d rather have people criticize him than not talk about him at all.
Following the abrupt loss against Lesnar, Kingston revealed that he and Vince McMahon had a positive discussion about the situation. According to Kingston, the WWE chairman has been supportive of him and his New Day stablemates from the beginning.
WHAT?!?!?! In SECONDS!
We’ve got a new champion! #SmackDown @BrockLesnar pic.twitter.com/o3nAcqQ3xL
— WWE (@WWE) October 5, 2019
As The Inquisitr previously reported, FOX officials allegedly requested that Kingston drop the belt to Lesnar because they wanted a “big sports star” representing the brand as champion. Kingston is on the show every week, but his mainstream appeal isn’t as big as Lesnar’s, even though “The Beast” is a part-timer.
That representation is going to be short-lived, however. On last week’s episode of the show, Lesnar defected to Monday Night Raw . The off-camera reason for the decision was because it was reportedly more convenient for Lesnar’s manager — and the show’s executive director, Paul Heyman — to have the former MMA star on the red brand.
Despite his championship loss, it seems Kingston is still held in high regard by company officials. On this week’s episode of Friday Night SmackDown , he and Big E defeated Scott Dawson and Dash Wilder to become seven-time Tag Team Champions, a feat that gets WWE tag teams into the Hall of Fame.
